The Director in Charge of Planning and Programming at the National Road Safety Authority (NRSA), Ing. David Osafo Adonteng has admonished government to give road accidents the same attention Covid-19 has received.

According to him, the enthusiasm and energy government has exerted to curtail the spread of Covid-19, resulting in its decline must be redirected in the country's fight to reduce road mortality.

Speaking to Samson Lardy Anyenini on Newfile, he said "when Covid-19 came and we all dedicated ourselves in various ways to fight it, we fought it. Even though it has not been eradicated we see some reduction in terms of the rate of infection. It is the same way we are advocating that, let us meet these statistics squarely.”

His comment comes after data from the Ghana Police Service indicated that some 771 lives were lost to road accidents between January and March this year.

He added that the number of lives that road accidents have claimed is relatively higher than the number of deaths recorded by Covid-19 in the same period of months. Yet, "we are not recognizing the effects of accidents because it’s been there with us for a long time.

“In any case, if you compare last year which recorded 2589 deaths in addition to this year's records, we have already passed 3,000 deaths in 15months. Comparing Covid-19 deaths recorded in the same period did not hit 800 deaths. So which one would you want to dedicate resources, energy, and efforts to fight it?" he quizzed.

After JoyNews aired its hotline documentary dubbed “CRUSHED” by Seth Kwame Boateng, members of the general public together with stakeholders in the transport sector have been dialoguing on solutions to reduce the rate of road accidents.

Already, Superintendent Alexander Obeng of the  Motor Transport and Traffic Department (MTTD) has urged the government to invest in technology to ensure road traffic regulations are adhered to rather than relying on manual efforts by police personnel, which have failed to be efficient for the past years.